Things to do in Palma de Mallorca

Landmark · On the seafront below the old town

The Gothic cathedral standing directly above a reflecting lake, with a Gaudí intervention inside and a Barceló ceramic chapel.

Local tip: Go on a morning between eleven and noon in early November or February, when the light through the great rose window projects a second image of it onto the west wall beneath — a phenomenon the cathedral publishes dates for and locals turn up to watch. The Parc de la Mar below is the free version and the best evening walk in the city.

Nightlife · West of the old town, above the port

The old fishermen's and windmill quarter turned into Palma's densest concentration of bars, restaurants and small terraces.

Local tip: The market hall is the anchor and the streets around it are where the city eats and drinks. It is also the most internationalised barrio in Palma, which cuts both ways — you will find your people quickly and you will hear less Catalan than anywhere else in the city.

Food · Central, off Plaça d'Espanya

Palma's main covered market — fish, meat, island produce and a first-floor row of stalls that cook what you point at.

Local tip: The fish floor is where the city actually shops and prices are normal. Buy at a counter and take it upstairs to be cooked, which is the local move and costs a fraction of a restaurant. Go before noon; by two the good fish is gone.

Neighborhood · East along the seafront, 25 minutes on foot from the centre

A former fishing village absorbed by the city — low houses, a small harbour and a seafront promenade that carries on for kilometres.

Local tip: The cycle and walking path along the front runs from here all the way past the port to Cala Major, and it is the best piece of everyday infrastructure in Palma. The village itself has gentrified hard, but walk five minutes inland and Es Molinar is still an ordinary neighbourhood.

Nature · North-west of the city

A UNESCO-listed cultural landscape of dry-stone terraces, olive groves and mountain villages, reached by a 1912 narrow-gauge railway from Palma.

Local tip: The train is a tourist ride and worth doing once. What residents do is drive or bus to Sóller, take the tram to the port, and walk a section of the GR-221 dry-stone route — the stage between Deià and Sóller is the accessible one. Winter and early spring are the good seasons; the mountain is unpleasant in August.

Culture · On the hill west of the centre

A fourteenth-century circular Gothic castle — the only one of its shape in Europe — inside a public pine wood above the bay.

Local tip: Almost every visitor photographs the cathedral and never comes up here, which is why it is the best hour in Palma. Entry is free on Sundays. The wood around it is where the city runs and walks its dogs, and the terrace view takes in the whole bay, the port and the Tramuntana behind it.